Fisherwomen

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Three sisters and a friend with a messof fish headed for the skillet on a streamnear Bozeman, Montana, circa 1915.Some question if Woolley actually wrote the guide that’s credited to her. Authorshipof an even earlier work — Juliana Berners’ A Treatyse of Fysshynge wyth an Angle,published in 1496 — is also disputed. Happily, Joan Wulff challenges the naysayers:“What man would suggest [as Berners does] that to take care of hornets,bumblebees and wasps for bait one should bake them in bread?”Wulff makes some astute observations. After all,why would you attribute their books to Woolleyor Berners if they weren’t the real authors? It couldjust be a patriarchal reading. It still happens.Wulff knows about patriarchy. PioneeringFlorida Keys guide and angler Capt. RichardStanczyk tells of taking her saltwater fly-fishing30 years ago. He didn’t know who she was andwas skeptical. When they got out on the water,he told his brother to line up the boat so hecould show her how to cast. “I think I understandthis,” she said, then fired out a 100-footcast. Tell us about her predecessors, such asSara Jane McBride (1845-1880), a pioneer inthe use of entomology in fly-tying, who openeda tackle shop on Broadway.McBride, a self-taught entomologist, learned totie flies from her father, and researched the lifecycles of aquatic insects. At a time when womenwere pushed aside in science, she is hatchinginsects in makeshift aquariums and saying thatyou need to study the environment and ecosystemsspecific to a geographic region — still afairly new idea at the time.A postcard from about 1910 from a shoot at a freak fishstudio. (Left) A snapshot of a stalwart angler at LakeGeorge. Both images are from the book People Fishing,A Century of Photographs, Princeton Architectural Press.100 Anglers JournalAnglers JournalPHOTO BY SCHLECHTEN, COURTESY MUSEUM OF THE ROCKIESHow about Cornelia “Fly Rod” Crosby, sportsjournalist and Maine’s first registered guide?Crosby not only becomes an authority, but she alsomarkets herself. The state of Maine sends her to setup a sports exposition at Madison Square Gardenin 1895. Historian Thomas Verde describes howCrosby “awed the wide-eyed New Yorkers with herpiscatorial prowess by repeatedly casting her rodover the tanks and getting strike after strike witha delicate turn of the wrist.” She also participatedin the masculine world of politics; her efforts topromote conservation and guiding in Maine led tothe creation of the state’s first licensing system forhunting and fishing guides.101
This photo from Lake Arrowhead,California, in 1933 looks like anearly fishing cheesecake shot.You suggest that fishing granted women anagency and autonomy free of constraints thatmight otherwise apply — a “canopy of camouflagethat allowed women to move beyondsociety’s restrictions on gender.”Consider Mary Harvey Drummond, who wenton a fishing trip at the end of the 19th century inQuebec’s Laurentian Mountains and wrote aboutit for Rod & Gun in Canada. Her French Canadianguide tried to compliment her, noting thatshe could fish “better than some of les messieurs.”Drummond tartly replied, “Some of les messieurscan’t fish at all, can they?” In her article she writes:“We women of today talk much about our rights,and while our tongues wag, we are letting slip byus the very things we clamour for. In the woods ofCanada, equality with our brothers and husbandsawaits us, and a share in the sports that give healthto body and mind.” It nicely sums up the agencythat some women could find through fishing.“A basic purpose of costume is to distinguish menfrom women,” Alison Lurie said in The Languageof Clothes. What happens streamside? I’mthinking of the photograph of “Fly Rod” Crosbyin a long skirt with a lap full of trout. Also theVictorian woman who wrote about “those menwho wear big boots, climb right into the waterup to their knees, and, of course, they catchtrout — who couldn’t?” She’s clearly frustrated —restricted to skirts instead of waders. Yet she wasa successful angler. It’s what has been said aboutGinger Rogers: She did everything Fred Astairedid, except in high heels and backward.For 19th century fisherwomen in North America,proper clothing was a frequent topic of discussionbecause it was tied so closely to gender expectationsin society. To dress outside expected normswas to call your respectability into question. Findingthe middle ground out on the stream wasincredibly important. For very public womensuch as “Fly Rod” Crosby, dressing within thebounds of acceptability signaled that she was notradical and could be trusted. When The New YorkTimes interviewed her, the reporter made sure tosay that she did not wear knickerbockers out inthe woods. The fisherwoman who expressed herfrustration about men being able to wear bootsin the water was addressing more than a minorinconvenience; it was a deliberate statementabout gender inequality in society. In her satiricalarticle written in Outing in 1890, she describes thegradual destruction of her impractical, feminineclothing while attempting to fish, which I thinkhighlights the cultural disadvantage fisherwomenfaced. In other words, women had to work harderthan men to catch fish — just as Ginger Rogersdid with dancing.102 Anglers JournalCOURTESY OF THE BOOK, PEOPLE FISHING, A CENTURY OF PHOTOGRAPHSAnglers JournalClem Enloe, 84, let a photographertake her picture in 1937 in GreatSmoky Mountains National Park inexchange for a box of snuff, which ispoking out from behind her blouse. Atough bird, she refused to observe thepark’s fishing regulations and insteadfished year-round and with worms,which supposedly were prohibited.“Are you a little park man or a bigpark man?” she’d snap. Withoutwaiting for an answer, she’d say, “Bigpark man or little park man, you sonof a bitch. I fish when I please, winteror summer. See that can of worms?”Courtesy Great Smoky Mountains National Park Archives103
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